Stand Up To Cancer is back! Celebrities urge the nation to join the rebellion against cancer

Stars of the stage and screen join forces and channel their inner rebel to launch Stand Up To Cancer, a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4.

"We’re making huge progress and this is just the start. We hope that people across the UK will be inspired by our brilliant celebrity supporters to get involved, join the rebellion and stop cancer in its tracks.” - Rachel Carr, Stand Up To Cancer

Launched in the UK in 2012, Stand Up To Cancer raises money to support game-changing cancer research that will save lives here in the UK.

To mark the campaign’s return and encourage the nation to join the rebellion against cancer, Alan Carr, Davina McCall, Kirstie Allsopp, Scarlett Moffatt and a host of other celebrities have raided their dressing up boxes and transformed into their rebel hero.

Davina McCall, who lost her sister to the disease, said: “Getting involved in Stand Up To Cancer is a no-brainer when you think that one in two of us is going to get cancer at some point in our lives. But cancer doesn't have to be the really scary word that it used to be. Thanks to research, there's real hope and there are great prospects for the future. It's something that we can absolutely conquer by raising money and supporting Stand Up To Cancer’s scientists.

“I chose Joan of Arc as my rebel hero because she was French, and I'm half French. She's the ultimate strong woman. She felt that she had a destiny in her life, and even though it was incredibly dangerous and there were no other women doing what she was doing, she went and she fought. I just think she's a very strong, incredible role model and in some ways reminds me of Stand Up To Cancer – rebelling against this awful disease by taking a different, bolder route.”

Krishnan Guru-Murthy, presenter of Channel 4 news, added: “I had a little trepidation about dressing up as Jimi Hendrix in case I didn’t do him justice. When I told my eleven-year-old what I was doing he looked at me and said, 'You're just so embarrassing'. But it’s for a great cause!”

Rachel Carr, head of Stand Up To Cancer, said: “The UK’s spirit and determination to join forces against cancer has never been stronger. Our scientists are carrying out work that will change what it means to get a cancer diagnosis, speeding up the development of kinder, more effective treatments. We’re making huge progress and this is just the start. We hope that people across the UK will be inspired by our brilliant celebrity supporters to get involved, join the rebellion and stop cancer in its tracks.”

The Stand Up To Cancer campaign will continue throughout September and October and there’s lots of ways that people can get involved. From being a ‘hair raiser’ and waxing or shaving body parts to raise cash, dusting off aprons to create and sell ‘ballsy bakes’, or getting sponsored to take part in ‘Game On’, Stand Up To Cancer’s gaming marathon, there’s more than one way to rebel this autumn.

Notes to Editor

Stand Up To Cancer is a joint national fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4

The campaign returns this autumn with a variety of fundraising activities and a series of special programming on Channel 4

Launched in the UK in 2012, Stand Up To Cancer funds game-changing research that accelerates new cancer treatments and tests to UK patients, and across the world, to ultimately save more lives

More than £38 million has been raised in the UK to date and over 40 trials and projects have been funded, that will involve more than 10,000 cancer patients

Research projects include the development of the ‘chemo-package’ to deliver treatment at the best time for the patient; testing arsenic as a weapon to make cancer self-cannibalise; using viruses to seek and destroy cancer cells while boosting the immune system, and much, much more!

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Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666) and the Isle of Man (1103). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: Angel Building, 407 St John Street, London EC1V 4AD.